Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Mapping Our World

The four of us went along to a great exhibition at the National Library.

It was an interesting (if eclectic) exhibition tracing early attempts to map the world (a 1448 map by a Benedictine Monk) up to more modern day maps by Captain Cook. The kids loved the early maps as they featured pictures of monsters in unmapped areas. It was also interesting to see how Australia had been mapped over time, with early Portuguese and Dutch maps plotting out the west of Australia before Cook completed the picture on the east.

We spent quite a lot of time there - it was a free exhibition and was really fascinating with over 100 maps on display. It's easy to take things for granted now with Google Maps allowing you a birds eye-view of your neighbours garden, but it was excellent being taken back to a time where entire countries were vague squiggles and monsters lived just off the coast.


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